Shipping needs to get smarter, says Stopford

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This is one to print and keep. Simply fascinating stuff from Martin Stopford, who, for those who aren’t familiar with his name, is a front-runner for the mantle of  “greatest living maritime economist”. In recent years, Mr Stopford has been wrestling with the idea of how to make shipping profits sustainable. He argues that currently “ships are standalone production units, run by small companies with tight overheads. But the business model is facing diminishing returns; shortage of skilled officers and endless quality and regulatory supervision. [However], changes in information and communications technology (ICT) make a new business model viable. The “Smart-Shipping” model focuses on the transport performance of the company/fleet as a whole”. It’s the first of two-part series run on Splash247.